Adjustable fasteners have many uses in leisure, camping, sports, and safety products, where it is desired that a strap or belt be adjustably secured. Examples include seat belts for automobiles, shoulder straps for backpacks or luggage, and the adjustable straps for life jackets. For both convenience in the manufacture of articles employing adjustable fasteners, and for ease in use of such articles, it is desirable that the fasteners be reversible, so that the strap or belt to be adjustably secured can be threaded through the fastener from the fastener's top face or from its bottom face. Where a reversible fastener is employed in, e.g., a piece of luggage, it is not necessary to ensure during the manufacturing of the luggage that the fastener is threaded onto the straps from the proper orientation, because threading is correct from either face. Similarly, in the use of articles employing adjustable fasteners, the user can thread a strap through a fastener without having to examine the fastener to ensure that the strap is being threaded through the correct fastener face. This advantage is particularly important in safety applications, for example, with a life jacket, where the user could be agitated and the jacket must be fastened securely and quickly.
While a large number of fasteners are well known, reversible threading designs have been avoided due to the problem of providing economical fasteners that are suitable for mass production and that sufficiently engage a strap or web threaded therethrough to provide a tight, non-slip attachment that is easily released.
In light of the foregoing, it is an object of the invention to provide a reversible adjustable fastener.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a reversible fastener that tightly engages a strap threaded therethrough in a tight non-slip attachment that is easily released.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an adjustable fastener that improves the convenience of manufacture of articles employing such fasteners.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide an adjustable fastener that improves the ease in use of articles employing such fasteners.